Almodóvar Joins Koons, Schnabel Other Leading Artists in Creating Coffee Cups for illycaffè's Art Collection Series
July 23, 2009
NEW YORK, NY, July 23, 2009 – Academy Award-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is the latest world-renowned artist to create an original, limited-edition series of coffee cups for the illy Art Collection. Dating to 1992, the leading Italian coffee company’s collaborations with eminent visual contemporary artists have produced striking, much-sought-after cups, designed to enhance the enjoyment of coffee in pairing it with beautiful objects.
Available starting October 2009 at www.illyusa.com, Almodóvar’s six-cup series – each entry paired with an equally vivid saucer -- takes inspiration from six of the famed Spanish director’s most admired films; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), High Heels (1991), The Flower of My Secret (1995), Bad Education (2004) and Volver (2006).
The new illy Art Collection, signed by Pedro Almodóvar, will be available in the following sets:
- Six-cup espresso set will retail for $150
- Six-cup cappuccino set will retail for $175
- Two-cup espresso duo with illy coffee will retail for $70
- Two-cup cappuccino duo with illy coffee will retail for $80
“We are honored that Pedro Almodóvar has graced the illy collection with such a strikingly vivid series of cups, quite unlike any other we’ve seen,” says Carlo Bach, art director of illycaffè. “Each cup at once celebrates his own past artistry, while being completely original on its own. Each tells a memorable story, just as his films, in his signature, wonderfully unconventional style.”
Bach said Almodóvar has long been a fan of illy, been known to keep it on hand while filming. That gave Bach impetus to approach the director about creating a collection for illy.
Available now is an exclusive, limited-edition single cup -- itself a sneak preview of Almodóvar’s fall 2009 release, Broken Embraces -- depicting its star, Penelope Cruz, in a moody, Warhol-eque photogram. The limited-edition espresso cup and saucer pairing is signed by the artist, and retails for $60 exclusively at illyusa.com.
About the illy Art Collection: a world of contemporary art on a cup
Illy's passion for the beautiful and well-made, its love for the world of contemporary art and its exceptionally high quality are the driving passions behind the illy Art Collection series. The Collection aims to enhance the enjoyment of coffee by joining it with the aesthetic beauty of a work of art on a commonplace object: the cup. The Collection is among the most complete single art item collections in the world.
Starting with Matteo Thun’s 1992 design of illy’s signature china cup, illy cups and saucers have served as canvas for more than 70 of the world’s greatest contemporary artists, from Michelangelo Pistoletto, Marina Abramovic, Sandro Chia, Louise Bourgeois and Julian Schnabel, to Robert Rauschenberg, Jeff Koons, Joseph Kosuth and James Rosenquist. View the complete collection at http://illy.com/wps/wcm/connect/us/illy/art/illy-art-collection/collection-gallery.
About illycaffè
Based in Trieste, Italy, illycaffè produces and markets a unique blend of coffee as the single brand leader in quality coffee and gives coffee connoisseurs an overall authentic Italian coffee experience. Illy is available in more than 50,000 of the finest restaurants and coffee bars and is sold in over 140 countries around the world, serving more than 6 million cups of illy coffee per day. Globally, illy employs more than 700 people.
Illy buys green coffee of the highest quality Arabica directly from the growers through partnerships based on the mutual creation of value. The Italian-based company fosters long-term collaborations with the world’s finest coffee growers – in Brazil, Central America, India and Africa – providing know-how and technology and offering above-market prices.
